HAMILTON — Don’t worry if you don’t see a baseball.
Be more concerned with the noise you hear from the Hamilton High School baseball team.
Earlier in the season, things were too quiet. The Lions were thinking too much about individual accomplishments and batting averages and weren’t focused on doing the little things any successful team needs to do to win championships.
But Hamilton has gone through a transformation of sorts the past month. Not only has the silence been replaced with plenty of enthusiastic support and positive comments, but the Lions also are back in the title conversation.
“We had a long talk with the seniors, and then we talked to a lot to the rest of them about being selfish, about doing whatever it takes, about doing what is best for the team,” Hamilton coach Lewis Earnest said. “I think it has made a big difference.”
That championship trek will begin at 6 tonight when Hamilton plays host to Potts Camp in game one of the best-of-three Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 2A North State playoff series.
Game two will be at 5 p.m. Friday at Potts Camp. An if-needed game three will be at 5 p.m. Saturday in Hamilton.
Earnest points to the team meetings the Lions had before two games against Hatley as being the key. Prior to the discussion, players talked in Earnest’s office about being too caught up in statistics. After coming together and speaking up, Earnest feels the Lions are back playing the caliber of baseball past teams have played.
Seniors Austin Welch and Kyle Dahlem agreed. Like Earnest, they credit assistant coaches Cody Freeman and Trey Spencer for raising the spirits of players and getting them more involved in games.
“We are just playing ball like we were when we younger,” Welch said. “At practice, we are more serious. Coach Earnest has always helped us, but coach Freeman and coach Spencer have been a real big part in getting us up before a game.
“Coach Freeman played at (Mississippi) State and coach Spencer played at EMCC. We have taken the things they have learned and used them here. We have took out the big stuff and focused on the little things. It has really turned us around the last couple of weeks.”
Practicing without a baseball is one way Hamilton has changed its attitude. The players say the ability to visualize making all of the plays has helped them concentrate. They said the Lions also have adopted a better team mentality that realizes the importance of having one another’s back in all situations.
“We were kind of going through the motions like, ‘We are Hamilton. We are supposed to win,’ and it wasn’t happening,” Earnest said.
Earnest said Freeman and Spencer, who are student assistants, have brought a lot of energy and tried things he hasn’t used a lot in past years. He said they have tried to make it fun and intense, and the strategy has worked.
Breaking out the no-ball practice also has worked. He said some of the seniors remember a “phantom infield” and develop the positive mental approach it takes to see things happen and make them happen.
Now that the lights are back on after a week off, the players are ready to put their new mind-set back in play. The victories against Hatley gave the team confidence and raised the intensity to a level everyone knows needs to be maintained if the team has a chance to complete a title hunt.
“We’re starting to pick each other up and play more as a team,” Dahlem said. “It is producing wins and runs. … At the beginning, everybody was just playing for themselves. Now it is totally a team thing. It is just about putting runs on the board and getting a win.”
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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